on. Macbeth is still
found worthy to die the death of a hero on the field of battle. The
noble Macduff is allowed the satisfaction of saving his country by
punishing with his own hand the tyrant who had murdered his wife and
children. Banquo, by an early death, atones for the ambitious
curiosity which prompted the wish to know his glorious descendants, as
he thereby has roused Macbeth's jealousy; but he preserved his mind
pure from the evil suggestions of the witches: his name is blest in
his race, destined to enjoy for a long succession of ages that royal
dignity which Macbeth could only hold for his own life. In the
progress of the action, the piece is altogether the reverse of
"Hamlet": it strides forward with amazing rapidity, from the first
catastrophe (for Duncan's murder may be called a catastrophe) to the
last. "Thought, and done!" is the general motto; for, as Macbeth says,

"The flighty purpose never is o'ertook
Unless the deed go with it."

In every feature we see an energetic heroic age, in the hardy north
which steels every nerve. The precise duration of the action can not
be ascertained--years, perhaps, according to the story--but we know
that to the imagination the most crowded time appears always the
shortest. Here we can hardly conceive how so very much could ever have
been comprest into so narrow a space; not merely external events, the
very inmost recesses of the minds of the dramatic personages are laid
open to us. It is as if the drags were taken from the wheels of time
and they roll along without interruption in their descent. Nothing can
equal the picture in its power to excite terror. We need only allude
to the circumstances attending the murder of Duncan, the dagger that
hovers before the eyes of Macbeth, the vision of Banquo at the feast,
the madness of Lady Macbeth: what can possibly be said on the subject
that will not rather weaken the impression they naturally leave? Such
scenes stand alone, and are to be found only in this poet; otherwise
the tragic muse might exchange her mask for the head of Medusa.

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT

Born in Berlin in 1769, died in 1859; educated at Frankfurt
and Gottingen; a mining engineer in 1792; resigning his
position in 1797, he traveled in Switzerland, Italy and
France; made a scientific journey to South America and
Mexico in 1799-1804; lived in Paris in 1809-27; settled in
Berlin in 1827; went to Siberia and